These Are a Few of My Favorite Quotes
“What a drag it is getting older,” Mick Jagger
© Sherry Fishman
I agree with Mick Jagger. Monday, June 10, I turned 81. I’ve lost, or am losing much of my energy and strength, so I often drag myself to do chores. My right forefinger is permanently “asleep” and fairly useless. I need to rest much more, and plan much less to do for my days, or evenings.
Neither Paul, nor I drive at night anymore, so we’ve joined the other grey heads at theater matinées. We use Uber or Lyft when we go to evening dinners. I’ve always loved dancing, and although the music still moves me, I move less. I collapse into bed at 9ish.
I still love to cook and bake, but have found I simplify what and how many things I am making or baking. I no longer want to drive to the beach and back on the same day, or go to the Gorge for a hike. I love travel, but not traveling. Our oveseas air trips are exhausting, even when we use mileage for business class. We still are going to Europe with our kids (our favorite travel companions ); also, it’s nice not to have to rely only on ourselves to do all the schlepping.
“Experience is not what happens to you; it is what you do with what happens to you.” —Aldous Huxley (March 1956)
My experiences are filled with love and meaning. I married my best friend. We had two sons who are marvelous human beings. They married women and gave us daughters-in-love (not law) I’ve lived long enough to have adult grandchildren, whose careers are well-launched. Two of my grandsons are now living with women they and we love, so now I have one blood granddaughter and two almost grandaughter, along with 3 grandsons. We’re also very close with extended family and now we’ve babes to hold. So much love keeps life fulfilling.
John Lennon sang: “Life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans.”
Living brings pain too.The longer we’ve lived, the more people we’ve lost. Today Paul’s brother Larry would have been 74. He committed suicide in 1999 by gun. His was not the only suicide of someone we loved. I also still grieve students I taught, or counseled, who took their own lives.
More and more of our friends & family are affected by illnesses, including dementia. And more is to be expected with aging. Cancer has hit six close family members and taken the life of one. Covid hit all of us numerous times; thanks to medical science and care, we’re ok.
The old and infirm is too true now. So for me, all the grief means I must cherish every moment of living.There is a joy in sorrow; I had the people to love.
“The great thing about getting older is that you don’t lose all the other ages you’ve been.”—That’s right: Every year of our lives brings us to who we are now. I love living. I love that I'm alive to love my age.Madeline L’Engle
There are many people who went to bed just as I did yesterday evening and didn't wake this morning. I love and feel very blessed that I did. I love, too, that I know a little more today than I did yesterday, or I simply know it more profoundly.” Maya Angelou
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
‘If I am not for me, who will be? If I am not for others, what amI? Rabbi Israel (Lipkin)Salanter*
Every moment I have been in my life is filled with meaning and the joy of my family and friends, the experiences and opportunities I’ve had, the blessings of being able to give love, assist others, which has always given my life meaning, as have our years of social activism. I have had a wealth of professional experiences: teaching all age levels, counseling, directing, writing, working in Human Resources for Paul. Being a daughter,wife, mother, grandmother, & friend has made me rich with living..
And as Bob Dylan sang: “May you be Forever Young.”
“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” G.B. Shaw
I still play!
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*Rabbi Isaak (Lipkin) Salanter was my great-great grandfather. He founded a school based in ethics, Mussar. I am grateful to be his descendant.
